Courtesy: Golf Town

There are some words and phrases these days that are becoming increasingly significant in our vocabularies.

In the world of golf, there is perhaps one phrase that says it all: custom fitting.

Custom fitting of one's clubs used to be the purview of the tour pro. But those days are long, LONG gone.

The rapid advancement in club and shaft making technology has brought with it a transformation in the science of the game.

Many amateurs are familiar with launch angles, optimum ball spin rate, moments of inertia. Even I understand that stuff and I failed physics and geometry. Miserably.

But when you get another 20 yards off the tee or you power your ball out of fairway rough and onto the green with a hybrid iron club, you start to understand the science very quickly!

"eureka, I'm playing golf!!"

It's all in the shaft, say today's manufacturers. But it's more than that. It's also in the club head, the manufacturing methods, the practice tee technology of swing monitors.

And it's in the golf ball.

So, now, custom club fitters will tell you to match your shaft and clubhead design and material WITH your golf ball and your distance off the tee will climb and climb.

And you haven't even changed your swing!! In fact, club fitters also say that the proper, scientific combination of shaft, clubhead and ball can actually turn a slicer of the ball into one who slaps the dimples with a gentle draw.

That's the layman's overview, as I understand it.

For a much more comprehensive overview of club fitting, visit this site:

http://www.smartmoney.com/links/index.cfm?story=20060721
I'm headed to the nearest club fitter with a launch monitor one day very soon with my off-the-shelf TaylorMade R5.

Should be very interesting...